What will drive property tech trend in 2018?

Disruption has become the new normal for global and domestic corporations alike. While the level and impact of disruptive forces vary across industries, there remains a single unifying factor and that is technology. The real estate industry in Singapore and beyond is no exception. With the announcement of the Singapore government’s Real Estate Industry Transformation Map, and the heightened role of technology and the digitalisation of the sector, disruption has seemingly gone more institutional.

Across the board, conversations about property technology (PropTech) are becoming more frequent. With the rise of innovation, data democratisation and our growing understanding of how technology can give birth to new opportunities, improve business performance and enhance the end-user experience, PropTech has been gaining traction in recent years as one of the biggest trends in real estate. And while companies and governments are still navigating the enormous wave of digitisation and technology, some concrete developments have emerged.

Race to leverage data will intensify

With the Internet of Things (IoT) and plethora of data available, the real estate industry will continue to race to leverage data. It will need to understand data at a deeper level to deliver products that drive benefit to customers. One of the most visible ways it will achieve this is through harnessing data more strategically to improve and personalise the user experience of the built space.

PropTech has been gaining traction in recent years as one of the biggest trends in real estate​ (Credit: Vincent Mundy/Bloomberg)

PropTech-influenced possibilities for office workers and occupiers have been popularised in recent months. More sophisticated workplaces allow users to reserve desks at work, automatically adjust the lighting or temperature, or even have their favourite beverage ordered ahead of time from their preferred café and ready for consumption at the right temperature as they arrive at their desk — all through an app. Truly disruptive in anyone’s language.

However, the reach and possibilities for leveraging this data extend further, especially in the area of facilities management, an area also pinpointed by the Singapore government. Using the data gathered from meeting room bookings, office usage patterns emerge, enabling facilities management operators to maximise the efficiencies of space: They can map out peak periods of space usage and shut...

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